Today, Americans were told that they must close their Intrade.com accounts. That happened because the federal government agency known as the “Commodity Futures Trading Commission” (CFTC) today sued the prediction market, where people from all over the world bet about things like who will win elections.

Intrade decided all its U.S. customers must now close their accounts and withdraw their money from the site.

That’s terrible news for all of us who want more input into what’s going to happen in the future. Bettors on Intrade.com have made incredibly accurate predictions about elections – because they, unlike TV pundits, have real money on the line. This year, I watched on election night as TV pundits said “too close to call… too close to call…” while the bettors on Intrade knew that it was not a close call.”

The claim is that they were speculating on the price of commodities. If you are guessing on the price of a commodity in the future that is the same as buying an option. And , of course they’re going to regulate that. This should be a surprise to no one . Another day another regulation

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“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable...”